A River Runs Through It.

(Warning - long post ahead, with many pictures. Grab a coffee! Oh, and take a pee first, especially if the sight of water makes you want to make some water of your own....)

It's been raining in the Bag Lady's neck of the woods.

She and the Rancher knew they were under a heavy rainfall advisory, but on Thursday they decided to go camping for the night, regardless. They tucked their trailer into their customary camping spot and lit a little fire, roasted a wiener and enjoyed the company of a couple of friends. It rained for a few minutes, but it stopped and was quite a pleasant evening.

Sometime during the night, it started to rain.
And it rained. Hard.

When the Bag Lady got up in the morning, she looked outside and was a little surprised to see just how much it had rained. And just how much water had collected in the spot where a mere 6 or 7 hours earlier she had been enjoying a nice fire..... (click on any of the images to enlarge)

One of their friends arrived in time for breakfast, and it was decided that they had better pull out, mostly because it was still raining hard, and there was more water collecting in their campsite.
While the Bag Lady cleaned up after breakfast and stowed things away in the trailer, the Rancher, with the help of their friend, tore down camp.



It was touch and go, but the Rancher managed to coax the trailer out of the hole they call their campsite and they headed for home (where their rain gauge was registering 1 inch)

It continued to rain the entire weekend. The rivers rose and overflowed their banks. The Bag Lady went out to check cows yesterday morning (in the rain) and had to contend with this...

Fortunately, she was wearing these.....


Sadly, she thinks her garden is not going to produce much this year (why, oh why didn't she plant rice?)




They heard reports that the big river between their ranch and the nearest town was starting to overflow it's banks, so they went for a little drive.
The river apparently crested overnight, but it was still very high.... (it is usually on the other side of that little tree out in the water)


As were several other ordinarily small streams in the area. This is Bald Mountain Creek...


And this is Big Mountain Creek (or perhaps this is Bald Mountain Creek and the other one is Big Mountain Creek.....) Both of them were well over their banks, but if you look closely at the picture above, you can see that it had been much higher)
And this is where Big Mountain Creek and Bald Mountain Creek converge....


It is still raining. The rain gauge is reading 4 1/2 inches (over 3 days).
The drought this area has been experiencing for the last several years appears to be over.
Whew.